Azerbaijan "seized" Georgian territory to build defense facilities - study

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijan has built defense facilities and strongholds which sink into the territory of Georgia, beginning from the crossroad of Armenia-Georgia-Azerbaijan border and stretching to the Red Bridge checkpoint. Some 6,5 km long, the area covers around 800-1000 hectares.

In a conversation with PanARMENIAN.Net Armenian political scientist Samvel Meliksetyan unveiled the results of his own research.

The red line denotes the Georgia-Azerbaijan border. The red and green dotted lines represent border incursions near Mount Papakar and Red Bridge, respectively.

According to Meliksetyan, Papakar peak, a key military point, is situated in the territory of Georgia, the Azerbaijan border lying south of the mountain. But the Azerbaijanis have gone some 400 meters deep in this area and established a system of strongholds that fully lie on the territory of Georgia.

The Azerbaijani strongholds, and the Georgian land currently under Azerbaijan’s control in yellow; the coordinates are available here

“The section situated farther in the east was a subject of dispute in the Soviet times but a final demarcation was carried out in the early 1980s, as a result of which the border was established in favor of Georgia. The demarcation went on to become the state border and is clearly indicated on Google Maps and formal sources,” Meliksetyan said.

A Soviet map showing the previous border (in black dotted lines) and the final border (in purple)

By the way, the same map also shows that the Armenian-Azerbaijani border underwent more serious modifications, especially near the village of Barekamavan, where a much larger area of land has become a part of the Azeri village of Kemerli.

Some changes have also occurred on the Armenian-Georgian border in favor of Georgia, but the amended borders were approved as the official ones and are reflected on Google Maps.

In this section, territory occupied from Georgia covers around 700 hectares which can be seen via Google tools